Georgia Explains Return Of Player Arrested For DUI

PASADENA, CA - JANUARY 01: Head Coach Kirby Smart of the Georgia Bulldogs reacts in the 2018 College Football Playoff Semifinal Game against the Oklahoma Sooners at the Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual at the Rose Bowl on January 1, 2018 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

A week before Georgia’s season opener against Vanderbilt, freshman defensive end Bill Norton was arrested on suspicion for DUI. He missed that Week 1 game in his home state of Tennessee.

Previously, Norton would’ve been suspended for at least two games. As a result, many were surprised when he saw the field in Week 2 against Murray State.

The explanation: a change in UGA policy. Ahead of the 2017, the school revised its policy, bumping it down to a one-game suspension, and is treating it more as a medical than a disciplinary issue.

“(With) drug rehab and substance-abuse issues, you need to look at it from a medical standpoint,” (director of sports medicine Ron) Courson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution at the time. “I think in the past it was looked at from a disciplinary standpoint. But substance abuse is a medical problem just like any medical problem we see.”

“(With) drug rehab and substance-abuse issues, you need to look at it from a medical standpoint,” Courson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution at the time. “I think in the past it was looked at from a disciplinary standpoint. But substance abuse is a medical problem just like any medical problem we see.”

Of course, when this happens surrounding a major football program, it raises questions. Courson said that head coach Kirby Smart had “zero input” on the change in policy ahead of the 2017 season, per the AJC piece.

At the time of Norton’s arrest, Smart said he was “very disappointed” in the freshman, and called the situation “unacceptable.”

Bill Norton played by didn’t record a state in the box score against Murray State. Georgia hosts Arkansas State in its Week 3 game this Saturday.